Man Shot Dead Outside Convenience Store

Killer Was Angry After Being Denied Cigarette

FORT LAUDERDALE - — Ahmed "Esmee" Yahia stopped to help some friends unload a truck at the United Brothers Food Store on Wednesday afternoon and got killed over a cigarette, detectives said.

Just minutes earlier, the man asking for the cigarette had been rebuffed, then physically thrown out of the convenience store at 2162 NW Sixth St. Angry, he vowed to return.

Moments later, the man stopped his car in the middle of Sixth Street, got out with a shotgun and fired at Yahia, fatally wounding him, homicide detective John Curcio said.

One of the other men at the store grabbed his gun and shot back at the killer but missed, and the man got away, Curcio said.

"It was over the most minute of things," Curcio said. "It was over a single cigarette."

On Wednesday afternoon police still were looking for the gunman, who is described as a thin black man, between 18 to 25 years old, and 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall. His short hair was in small twists and he wore a white tank top and beige pants during the murder.

The gunman fled in a white compact car, possibly a Japanese make, which could have been hit by a bullet in the exchange of gunfire.

Yahia, 47, a father of three, sometimes works at the store but was not on the clock on Wednesday when he was killed about 1 p.m., Curcio said.

And it wasn't Yahia, but another worker, who had argued with the killer.

Yahia was helping Esam Tabidi, one of the store's owners, and another man unload the truck when the killer went inside the store and asked for a free cigarette. The clerk refused and the two got into an argument.

"The entire store stops because this guy is causing such a commotion," Curcio said. When the man wouldn't leave, all four workers forcibly removed him from the market. That's when police say he threatened to return.

Yahia and the others went back to unloading the truck.

The killer probably went home to arm himself, Curcio said, then drove back to the store.

He parked in a lane of traffic and got into an argument with two middle-aged women who took offense to him stopping in the street, Curcio said. He insulted them, then pulled out a shotgun, ran up to the men at the truck and fired one round, hitting Yahia in the chest. The gunman then fled.

Yahia died at Broward General Medical Center.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Curcio at 761-5529, Detective Jack King at 761-5544 or Crime Stoppers at 493-TIPS.